THE CYCLONE IN BENGAL.

Dunstan Times, Issue 776, 2 March 1877, Page 3

THE CYCLONE IN BENGAL.

The cyclone appears to have been the greatest calamity of the kind known to history. Calamities of far less extent have stamped themselves upon the imagination of the world, and live in popular tradition as typical illustrations of the fearful power of destruction which lies dormant In nature. The great earthquake at Lisbon, for instance, has acquired a supreme notoriety ■among such disasters. Upwards of 50,000 persons are said to have been swallowed up in Lisbon alone, several other cities in the Peninsula suffered severely, and the destruction extended to Morocco and Madeira. But the loss of life in the present instance seems to have been far greater and equally sudden. Its full extent is even as yet unknown, but it can hardly be estimated as falling much short of half a million lives. An enormous storm wave is described as having swept with scarcely any warning, over the islands and low-lying lands at the mouth of the Ganges and Brahmapootra. The population of three of these islands is estimated at 310,000, and barely a fourth of them are believed to he surviving. But, in addition to this, the wave swept over the mainland to a distance of five or six miles from the coast, audit is believed that wherever it,passed not one-third of the population is surviving. All this frightful destruction came upon the people without yarning, fn the dead of night. Up to 11 o’clock on the evening of the c'.tastrnphe there were no signs of danger ; but before midnight the storm wave surprised the people in their beds. It is described as sweeping over the islands to a depth, in some places, of 20 feet, completely submerging them. Only ono refuge was available. In those districts it is usual fer the villages to bo surrounded by dense groves of trees, cbielly cocoa and palm ; and those who could reach their branches seem to have had the only chance of escape. Almost every one perished who failed in reaching trees. A natural instinct waste find refuge on the roofs of the houses, but the waters burst into the houses, tore off tbo roofs, and carriol them miles away, gone-

rally out to sea, and a few are said to havii been thus carried across a channel ton miles wide to the mainland. But the vast majority were never heard of again. The cattle weio all drowned, the boats swept away, and the ordinary means of communication thus destroyed. The European residents havo shared in the general destruction, almost all the civil officers and police official* in tho principal islands having perished.—London Times.